Former Florida Gator golfer battling Lou Gehrig’s Disease

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Tony Soerries sends his regrets.

As a three-time champion of the Greater South Bend Men’s Metro Golf Tournament, which celebrates its 100th birthday at this Sunday’s final-round site Erskine Park Golf Course, the 55-year-old Soerries would have been eligible to play in this year’s event and participate in the celebration.

“I wish I could have come back, seen some friends and even played a couple of rounds up there,” the 55-year-old Soerries said while watching golfers play the 12th hole of Bentwater Yacht and Country Club behind his home in Montgomery, Texas.

“I miss those courses (Erskine and Elbel Park); they were fun to play,” lamented Soerries, who won his first Men’s Metro title in 1987 as a 5-foot-7, 130-pound, 18-year-old Clay High School graduate by shooting what still is a record eight-under 276 for a 16-stroke victory over past champion Jon Phillips.

Soerries later added two more Metro titles to his résumé in 1990 and 1991 while playing for Buddy Alexander’s Florida Gators and won two Indiana Opens (1996, 1997) after turning pro. As a reinstated amateur, he played in the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black and after turning 50 qualified for two U.S. Senior Opens — in 2019 at Warren Golf Course and 2022 at Saucon Valley in Bethlehem, Pa.

Back in its heyday in the 1980s, the Metro saw an average of nearly 300 golfers annually play. Entries have declined deeply since. Just as they did last year by opening the field to any male golfer who lived within a 25-mile radius of South Bend, tournament officials decided to invite any past champion, no matter where he lived, to participate.

“I wish I could have come,” Soerries continued.

“I wish I was healthy,” added Soerries who has been grounded by Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. ALS is a nervous system disease that affects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. It causes loss of muscle control. Eventually, it can control the muscles you need to move, to speak, to eat and to breathe.

Most people know ALS better as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease” — it took the life of the Yankees great first baseman who played 2,130 consecutive games in the 1920s and 1930s. Gehrig was 37 when he died on June 2, 1941, nearly two years after his diagnosis. The disease has claimed others, most notably pitcher Jim “Catfish” Hunter (who died one year after his diagnosis), former Notre Dame wide receiver Pete Demmerle (who lived eight years following his diagnosis) and…